Thursday, February 4, 2010

Robert Lowell

“The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train.” Robert Lowell quote

“If youth is a defect, it is one we outgrow too soon.” Robert Lowell quotes

"For the Union Dead"When I first read this poem it made me think of the movie "Glory". "Shaw's father wanted no monument except the ditch. where his son's body was thrown and lost with his "niggers". Then a second and third reading I get a picture of aquarium that is being torn down. The author is comparing the South Boston Aquarium to Colonel Shaw and the first African American infantry. The aquarium and the infantry were "fish bone in the city's throat". Harsh words to compare an aquarium to the first all black infantry that gave their lives for the right to fight for their own country. Aquariums are created just to make money, but the infantry was created for a social purpose that helped give more opportunities to the African American population.

Just up dating... I think is the first poem that other people got the same ideas I had. I can't figure out if it was just pure luck or am I finally getting this poetry thing again. You would think after four years of going to poetry slams and writing my own I would understand these poets better. I guess having settling into the American dream has calmed the voices in my head.